I finished the book I was reading this evening and even though it was just a first-person account of somebody’s years working at Google I had a good laugh right at the end.  The reason is that it was an advance proof copy so not exactly the same as the version that will be on sale next month.

After the end of the story there is a glossary, followed by some thanks/acknowledgements, and right at the end an index.  ((For any younger readers… just think of all this stuff as the paper equivalent of DVD extras))  I scanned through the glossary and dutifully read the acknowledgements turned the page and found…   just the words “to come” followed by 15 blank pages.

Brilliant!

I can understand that a proof might not have the index included and can understand why.  I just thought it was a fantastically ironic to have a blank index in a book about Google which, at its heart, is one gigantic index.

This is not a complaint by the way.  You have to expect proof copies to contain small glitches or a missing index or illustrations and things like that.  As I was saying to Skuds’ Sister just yesterday, the thing I like best about getting books though Amazon’s Vine programme is not that they are free but they are often pre-publication proof copies.  The free bit is nice of course, but it is the getting something in advance of publication that I really enjoy.

Being a bookseller the Sis understands that of course and is surely aware that when she has given me proof copies of Iain Banks or Robert Rankin books I am immensely chuffed.